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The American Navy. 






The American Navy. 



AN ADDRESS 



BY 



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WILLIAM H. LAMBERT. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

CULEERTSON & BaCHE, PkINTEKS, 727 JaYNE St. 



200 COPIES PRIVATELY PRINTED. 



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The following address was delivered before Post No. 2, G. A. R., 
Department of Pennsylvania, on the Ninth of October, 1879, and 
that portion of the address comprised on pages 6, 7 and 8, was 
repeated at the " Camp Fire " given in honor of General Grant, 
by the Philadelphia Posts of the Grand Army of the Republic, on 
the night of the Eighteenth of December, 1879, at the American 
Academy of Music. 









The title of our Order, the military character of its organization, 
the terms of its ritual, and the preponderance in its ranks of 
those who served in the Army, have in very great degree obscured 
the foct that our membership comprises many who served in the 
Navy. 

Believing that this Post should give outward sign that it cordi- 
ally welcomes to its ranks all who aided in the suppression of the 
Rebellion, whether' on sea or on land, the comrades who served in 
the jSTavy desire to present to the Post an appropriate emblem of 
that branch of the service, and they have therefore requested me 
in their name and on their behalf to ask your acceptance of this 
Union Jack. 

Why thej' should honor me with the pleasant duty, instead of 
selecting from their own number some one of the many better 
fitted than myself I cannot imagine, unless it is that the innate 
modesty of the sailor would prevent any one of them from giving 
due prominence to the merits of the service ; certainly in selecting 
one whose knowledge of ships is scarcely greater than was his 
who sang, 

"And that junior partnership I ween, 
Was the only ship that I ever had seen," 

these comrades have not rendered themselves liable to the charge 
of choosing an unduly biased advocate. 



The American Navy ! Magnificent theme ! Associated with the 
glories of the past, its liistory is the record of noble daring and of 
wondrous achievement. 

In its beginnings, very little among the great powers of the 
earth, it soon atoned in gallantr}'- and prowess for its lack of guns 
and tonnage; carrying the flag of the infant republic into Euro- 
pean waters, it flaunted the Rattlesnake Jack and the saucy 
defiance, "Don't tread on me," and fought and won its early 
battles in the very f^ice of the mighty mistress of the seas. 

Looming into larger life and vast importance in the war of 1812, 
it compelled England to recognize what it had already taught 
France and the Barbarj' States, the existence, the independence 
and the power of the Nation, and it divided forever that sovereignty 
of the seas which so long had been the undisputed boast of its 
haughty adversary. 

In later and more peaceful years, in the interests of trade, of 
science, and of humanity, it penetrated to every clime, maintaining 
alike in Southern Ocean, in ^Egean Sea, on Syrian lake, and mid 
Arctic ice, its own high fame and the honor of the flag. 

And in our own time, amid flame and storm, it has repeated the 
deeds of its early history, and proven that though the methods and 
materiel of war have radically changed since the days of Stewart 
and Decatur and Hull, the strength of the American Navy is now 
as it was then, in the matchless skill and the dauntless courage of 
the American sailor. 

With vision dimmed by the smoke of the great conflict on land, 
with ears deafened by the storm raging about us, we of the Army 
were unable to clearly see or to rightly hear the deeds of the Navy. 
And our people in their homes absorbed in the terrible struggle 



upon their borders, with intensest interest in the Armies to which 
they had contributed the greater number of their loved ones, failed 
to appreciate the importance of the work wrought upon the far 
away coast and gulf. 

Now and then, indeed, some thrilling episode at sea — interlude 
in the tremendous dm ma on the land — electritied the Nation and 
made the Navy the theme of every tongue, as when on the March 
Sabbath morning after a long night of anxious suspense, the 
Monitor interposed its nondescript forni between the Merrimack 
and its intended victim, and at once revolutionized naval architec- 
ture, saved a fleet, and perchance changed the issues of the war; 
or as when on another Sunday morning, in full view of the 
countries whose countenance alone gave him life^ the pirate went 
down in the Channel beneath the guns of the Kearsarge. 

But after all, we regarded the Navy more as a mere adjunct to the 
Army than as an important and co-ordinate branch of the service. 
It is only since the smoke of battle has lifted, and the din of 
conflict hushed, the jiageantry of grand review vanished, and 
the drum beat of returning regiments stilled, that we of the Army, 
and our friends at home have been able to appreciate how great 
was the work, how essential the performance of the Navy. 

Blockading a coast greater in extent than the Atlantic shore of 
Europe, it stood like a wall between the Confederacy and the powers 
whose professed neutrality would have become open belligerency 
had not that bulwark of iron and flame interposed, proclaiming 
from the Potomac to the Rio Grande the purpose and the power 
to crush domestic insurrection and to repel forei^jn intervention. 

On Western rivers it vied with the Army in securing control of 
those important highways. Outstripping the troops of Grant the 



gunboats of Foote achieved that first great victory which, followiilg 
the long winter of inaction, imparted new life to the cause. Every- 
where its presence was presage of victory to friends, and i:)ortent 
of disaster to foes. 

With no enemy upon the seas, it sought on shore and on inland 
waters opportunity to do its part in the great work. How well 
it wrought from the initial triumph at Hatteras to the closing 
triumph at Mobile the long line of captured forts and sealed 
harbors attest. 

And nowliere in the annals of war are recorded prouder deeds 
than those fights on river and bay, when through burning rafts 
and armored rams, over bursting torpedoes and 'neath the concen- 
tring fire of a hundred guns, the fleet steamed to victory under 
command of that grand liero, that noble man, our great first 
admiral, Farragut. 

But time fails me even to outline the story, to tell how Porter 
passed the batteries, how Gushing destroyed the Albemarle, 
how BoGGS fought the Varuna, how Crave.v went to the grave 
coffined in his monitor, how with the old flag flying at the 
main, and guns booming defiance until tlie engulfing wave 
quenched their flame, Morris went down with the Cumberland. 

Worthy compeer of the service on land ; it bore no unequal 
share in the great struggle. The history of the war is the history 
of the Army and Navy. 

" May the service united ne'er sever. 
And each to our colors prove true, 
The Army and Navy forever. 

Three cheers for the red, white and blue." 



We ask you to accept this Union Jack. We ask you to cherish 
and honor it as you cherish and honor the battle-scarred banners 
whose tattered folds hallow your hall. Though its bright 
silken folds bear no trace of shot or of shell, it is no holiday 
banner. 

It is not the flag of Commodore or Admiral, proud as we would 
be to tender, proud as you should be to receive the pennant which 
on Wabash, or Benton, or Hartford streamed in the forefront 
of battle the signal of victory. 

The flag we tender you is the flag of the gunboat, of the monitor, 
of the frigate ; the flag that floated in the weary watches of the 
blockade, and in the storm of battle ; the flag whose stars cheered 
the sailor in action and whose folds shrouded his hammock in 
death ; the service flag of the American Navy. 

We commit it to you, confident that the men who, on a hundred 
fields, braved death for the flag, will preserve unsullied this 
emblem of the sister service — this Bonnie Blue Flag that has not 
lost a single star. 







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